Gurston Down Championship Rounds 13-16 – 1st and 2nd August 2026 – The end of the Mazda?

Aug 8, 2026

Gurston Down Championship Rounds 13-16 – 1^st and 2^nd August

WORDS – John Brown

PICTURES – Matthew Willis and Vince Feeney

Continuing hot and sunny weather and another full entry for the first weekend of August with, in addition, our second visit of the year from the motorcycles of the National Hillclimb Association all made for a challenging weekend which unfortunately came to a premature ending on Sunday evening. 

GURSTON DOWN CHAMPIONSHIP

Fortunately all competitors in the Gurston Down Championship completed their second set of timed runs before the curtailment of the meeting and so their scores are included in the Championship standings but Round 7 of the Top Ten Challenge was cancelled and so no points were awarded, meaning that the final results of the Challenge will be decided from the best 6 rounds out of 9 rather than 7 out of 10. 

For the first weekend this year no driver was able to equal or get below their Championship class target time indicating perhaps that finding that last few hundredths or tenths was becoming increasingly harder. I have included the current class target against each class below.

A number of withdrawals reduced some of the Championship classes to just one runner and the winners of those classes were as follows: 

Class 9-4WD (TT – 33.16) was won by Jim Herbert in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo on Saturday in a time of 34.27 but on his first run on Sunday he coasted down through Hollow Bend and up the escape road and did not appear for his second run and so no scores for him that day.

Class 14 (TT – 33.56) – although Ben Rolls appeared in practice on Saturday he did not take any competitive runs and was a no-show on Sunday leaving Luke Trotman in his Mallock with the class to himself which he won with times of 34.79 (Sat) and 34.64 (Sun).

Class 15a (TT – 32.50) – Tim Pitfield in the DJ Firecat was as usual on his own in this class but his times were down compared to earlier rounds – he won on Saturday with 33.91 and on Sunday with 33.11.

Class 16 (TT – 28.61) – Nic Mann was a late withdrawal owing to a family illness and so the only runner was non-Championship entrant Chris Dunscombe in his Peugeot T16 bodied Mitsubishi Lancer in which his best times were 36.40 (Sat) and 37.32 (Sun)

Chris Dunscombe (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo / Peugeot T16) [photo by Matthew Willis]

Class 20 (TT – 31.19) – no competition for Stephen Snell in his Ralt RT35 this weekend but for the first time since the opening weekend he failed to get below 32 seconds in the class runs after a fraught first run on Saturday (41.82), though he recovered in the Top Ten run-off on Saturday. Best times in the class were 32.49 (Sat) and 32.05 (Sun).

Class 21b (TT – 27.12) –  another frustrating weekend for Jason Robinson and his Empire Wraith. A good qualification in 30.83 on Saturday (third best) was followed by a breakage in the car as he approached the finish line which left him in 12^th in the run-off while on Sunday he was forced to withdraw after one practice run.

Another solitary entrant was the first one at Gurston in the Junior Class for drivers aged between 14 and 16 in cars up to 110bhp (4-JNR) where Aiden Ingram, on only his second hillclimb event, set a new class record of 49.05 secs in his MG ZR.

Junior driver Aiden Ingram (MG ZR) [photo by Vince Feeney]

And the final class with just the one runner was the Chairman’s Invitation where 4 time Gurston champion Steve Butts was being filmed in his Lotus Elise for an episode of a new TV series called “The Race Mechanic”. Having not been on the hill since 2023 he got down to times of 35.98 on Saturday and 34.88 on Sunday.

Steve Butts (Lotus Elise) [photo by Matthew Willis]

Richard Morton and Chris Burch continued their personal battle in Class 4-MX5 (TT – 39.08) with Richard running first this weekend. Both got below 40 secs on Saturday with Richard winning on 39.26 secs but on his first run on Sunday what seemed like an exuberant entry by him into Karousel saw the car eventually finishing up on its side just beneath the commentary box. Fortunately Richard was OK, the incident caused by a stuck throttle, and the car now has some damage to the driver’s side to match that on the passenger side from earlier incidents!

The final resting place for the Mazda? [photo by Vince Feeney]

John Davey and his MG Midget won again in Class 4a (TT – 39.39) with 40.22 (Sat) and 39.86 (Sun) but regular runner-up David Nutland, now in the 42^nd year of running his Mini, was beaten into 3rd place on Sunday by Steve Holley in his Ford Fiesta who was just 6/100ths faster on his first run but 1/100^th slower on the second run. Both were however beaten by Steve’s co-driver, Andrew Thorp on the second run though not by enough to elevate him above 4^th.

In Class 4b (TT – 37.93) Keith Mizen in his Mazda MX5 made his first appearance on Saturday since the Gurston Masters back in May and after a close battle he was able to win with a time of 38.34 ahead of the duelling Honda Civics of Russell Davies (38.41) and Daniel Friel (38.91). On Sunday, in the absence of Mizen and Friel, Davies reduced his best of the weekend to 38.21, beating the Mazda of Dean Dickens into second and scoring good points against his class target.

Class 4c (TT – 36.95) has not had any Championship entries this year and on Sunday its only entrant withdrew, but on Saturday it was Mark Spencer making his first appearance at Gurston for at least 10 years who won in his Porsche 911 GT3 in a time of 35.02 ahead of regular entrant Jon Young in his MGZS and Stephen Lloyd’s Audi A5. 

Mark Spencer (Porsche 911 GT3) [photo by Vince Feeney]

Class 4d (TT – 33.02) featured a Caterham and a couple of Westfields, a Sylva Striker and a Fisher Fury but in the only major incident on Saturday, Dan Trotman ran straight into the barriers at Ashes and rendered his Westfield hors de combat for the rest of the weekend. The only Gurston Championship entrant, Rob Brodie in his Honda engined Fury took a couple of straightforward wins in 36.24 (Sat) and 35.70 (Sun).

There were no championship runners in Class 4-4WD (TT – 32.78) on Saturday though Steve Cox joined in on Sunday. A welcome visitor to this class was 5 time Scottish Road Car Champion, David Reid in his Team Flying Haggis Subaru Impreza who improved to 36.19 by the end of Sunday but he was no match for the more modified Impreza of Dan Stevens who won with times of 34.35 (Sat) and 34.02 (Sun).

David Reid (Subaru Impreza) [photo by Vince Feeney]

Onto the modified classes and Graham Beale moved his entry from the Classic Marques Speed Challenge, where he reckoned he had a good chance of a class record, back into his usual Class 6 (TT – 33.06) in the hope of scoring good championship points and he was rewarded with class wins in 33.69 (Sat) and 33.16 (Sun), the latter of which gave him 19.9 championship points for that round, equal best (with Karl Stevens) of all entrants over the weekend.

Class 7 (TT – 35.31) was a 2 car contest between Steve Luscombe’s MG Midget and David Bean’s Mini and although Bean was quickest on the first Saturday run with a 42.46 it was advantage Luscombe overall on Saturday (42.17) and Sunday (41.46).

In Class 8 (TT – 35.68) Karl Stevens has been resetting targets every day until this weekend but with runs of 35.78 and 35.83 on Saturday he was still highest overall scorer and with Tim Pitfield having a problem on his first run he extended his Championship lead. Richard Worth in his Ford Puma was second in spite of a double spin along the field between Hollow and Karousel. On Sunday, in contrast, Karl had his worst two runs of the season when measured against the relevant target and he will be dropping those scores, but he still beat Worth with a better time of 36.21.

No championship contenders in Class 11 (TT – 31.56) and it was 2 wins for Adrian Lewis in his Westfield Superbusa (entered in a different Championship class) with 32.92 (Sat) and 32.42 (Sun) over John Bradshaw in his Westfield.

Class 13 (TT – 34.25) for historically interesting cars has been less populated than usual this year but it was the 2 regulars Fyrth Crosse and Mike Broome who fought it out with Fyrth winning in his Ensign on both days with 34.86 and 34.89 and his consistency against the class target across all 4 runs has seen him steadily climbing the table.

Fyrth Crosse (Ensign LNF3) [photo by Matthew Willis]

Peter Steel and Paul Davies continued their rivalry in their Radicals in Class 15b (TT – 31.01) and it was Peter who was quicker all weekend with runs consistently below 32 seconds, winning on Saturday with a best time of 31.81 and on Sunday it was 31.59.

Brothers Euan and Calum Kemp have been close all year in Class 18 (TT – 31.52) and it was no different this weekend. On Saturday they had Reg Allen in his Jedi to keep them honest and at the end of the day the three were separated by just 1/10^th with Euan leading the way on 36.55.  With no Allen on Sunday Euan again won (35.74) but only after Calum had led him first time up.

Class 19 (TT – 29.85) saw Lucy Cuff running alongside her father in the ex-James Moore Empire for the first time with James on hand as a spectator. On Saturday the Empire had a ruptured radiator after practice and so only David got a run in the afternoon but that 31.77 meant he finished 4^th overall behind the usual top 3 with Tom Williams taking his first class win of the year with a 30.98 ahead of Ben Bonfield and Mark Crookall who were both unusually unable to get below 31 seconds.

And maybe it was that which led to the amazing sight on Sunday of, first of all, Ben deciding that maybe he was not going to make Karousel and instead running up the escape road and then of Mark spinning in the middle of Karousel, ironically ending up almost exactly where his previously owned Mazda had been on its side earlier in the day! Tom Williams had gone up in 30.99, but the leader after this first run was none other than David Cuff on 30.86. Although David then had a poor time on the second run, none of the other 3 were able to oust him from the top, with the best time of the second run only being Mark Crookall’s 31.01.

David Cuff (Empire 00) [photo by Matthew Willis]

Steve Holland continued his dominance in Class 21a (TT – 27.99) winning on both days in 28.10 (Sat) and 28.14 (Sun) with Nigel Pitt in second though Nigel’s second run on Sunday came to an early halt when he coasted down through Hollow which begs the question of whether he would have been able to take his place in the Top Ten run-off if it had happened. 

Of great interest in this class was the presence of three classic Pilbeams: the familiar ex-Blankstone MP62KV6 (MP62-05) of Andrew Dinner; the ex Bill Morris MP88 – 06 of Jonathan Evans and Kevin Creaven, which unfortunately had a seized gearbox on Sunday, and most excitingly of all (at least to a Pilbeam nut like myself) the ex Roy Lane MP58 – 01 now owned and driven by Keith Rapsey and running a 2-litre Vauxhall engine. This was the first of 3 MP58s owned by Roy Lane when it was powered by a Cosworth DFL engine. It then passed to George Ritchie in Scotland who installed a Hart and then a Judd EV and its next owner was Deryk Young who attached the back end of the car to a Dallara tub to form the Dellara with which he took his only BHC run-off win at Shelsley. The last owner before Rapsey was Paul Crute who ran it with the Jaguar engine which is now in his OMS. 

Keith Rapsey (Pilbeam MP58-01) [photo by Vince Feeney]

Paul Crute was out in Class 22 (TT – 28.56) and finished second on both days to Terry Graves in his Gould DJ55 – Cosworth XD who won with times of 29.85 (Sat) and 29.32 (Sun).

With 16 rounds now having been run in the Gurston Championships we can start to look at the Championship positions based on each driver’s best 14 results. This does not include the further complication which is that the best 2 of the 4 rounds (3,4,19,20) will count double in the final!

Top 14 scores (no doubling included):

Karl Stevens 279.57

Tim Pitfield 278.13

Steve Holland 276.15

Stephen Snell 273.52

John Davey 271.00

Russell Davies 270.68

PRE-94 FORMULA FORD CHALLENGE

We have no championship entrants this year in Class 20a (TT – 36.62) for pre-1994 Formula Ford cars but as has been the case for a number of years we had the pre-1994 FF Challenge visiting us at the weekend for 4 rounds of their competition. This encompasses 3 weekends – a hillclimb at Loton Park in July, this weekend at Gurston and a sprint at Curborough in October. A total of 21 drivers took to the hill in cars varying from one of the very first Formula Ford cars produced back in 1967, a Lotus 51a, through other early models in a Merlyn Mk11A, a Pringett Mistrale and a Nike Mk4 and a wide range of Van Diemens to the newest car, Stuart Lugger’s Swift SC93F.

Winner of the first 4 rounds, Jimmy Harris was not present which opened the door for others to score well. Favourite was 3 times BHC winner Trevor Willis in Richard Summers’ Van Diemen RF80 and so it proved with Trevor taking three wins in times of 36.47, 36.09 and 36.25 but the 2^nd round on Saturday was won by local driver Stuart Lugger in 36.62. Across the weekend Trevor scored the most Challenge points with 398.55 (out of a possible 400), with Stuart Lugger second highest scorer on 394.60 and Simon Andrews third in his Van Diemen RF90 on 389.54. Andrew Mathis would have been well up there as he had been second in all of the first 3 runs but on Sunday’s last round he took a wee trip across the grass between Hollow and Karousel and lost 13 secs, eventually finishing with the 13^th highest score of the weekend. Another notable performance by a Gurston regular was Rebecca Crocombe’s 6^th highest points scoring position.

Trevor Willis (Van Diemen RF80) [photo by Matthew Willis]

A couple of the Fordsters found Karousel a tricky proposition: Tony Kiss turned in too early at the bottom and lost his nose cone against the grass as he spun to a halt while Les Buck failed to turn in at all at the top and proceeded a fair way up the field before rejoining at Deers Leap!

GUEST CLASSES

We also had a number of visiting Championship classes and the biggest was the Classic Marques Speed Challenge. Unfortunately they were not able to have their second run on Sunday. Fastest in class on Saturday was Dean Spurr in his Porsche Cayman GTS in a time of 36.59 from Jim Hood in his turbocharged Mazda MX5 on 36.97 but on Sunday it was Hood who was fastest on their only run with a 36.62 to Spurr’s 36.95. Two very different but closely matched cars but as the Challenge uses a complex handicap system it is possible that neither won the class on handicap.

Dean Spurr (Porsche Cayman) [photo by Vince Feeney]

Dan Young won the Isle of Wight Car Club class in his unusual Westfield which is fitted with a turbocharged Mazda rotary engine. His 35.21 on Saturday and 34.79 on Sunday were well ahead of his class rivals.

Dan Young (Westfield Mazda) [photo by Vince Feeney]

The Sevenoaks and District Motor Club Speed Championship class saw the only existing class record to be broken all weekend when Alex Peters in his Jaguar V8R took 1/100^th of a second off the old record with a 37.28 run to win the class on Saturday. He couldn’t find the same speed on Sunday and was beaten by Dave Rayner in his Caterham Supersport who had a best time of 38.68.

Alex Peters (Jaguar V8R) [photo by Vince Feeney]

A variety of cars in a number of sub-classes contested the Triple M Motorsport HSA Speed Championship class the quickest time on both days going to Richard Burnett in his Westfield (the current Downton MC class record holder) in 33.82 (Sat) and 33.72 (Sun) both times below the HSA sub-class record. Another HSA sub-class record was broken by Julian Rinaldi in his Ford Fiesta.

Father and son Chris and Matt Bramall were the only entrants in the BARC Speed Championship class on Saturday with son Matt winning in their shared Caterham in a time of 36.06. They were joined by Paul Wintle in a Toyota Yaris on Sunday but the result was the same with Matt winning in 36.25.

Finally a mixed field of Big Austin Healeys, Jensen Healeys and Austin Healey Sprites contested the Healeysport Speed Championship. Paul Baker in his Sprite overturned a 2/100^th deficit to Michael Berry in his 100M to win on Saturday in 38.71 with Berry in second and David Lane’s Jensen in third. On Sunday, in the absence of Berry, Brett Dillon (38.60) and Baker finished first and second in their Sprites with Lane again third. Ian Thomas in his classic rallying 3000 MkII replica was the best of the big Healeys in 5^th.

TOP TEN CHALLENGE

Only one round of the Top Ten Challenge was held and this was won convincingly by Steve Holland with a time of 28.35. Completing the top 3 were Nigel Pitt (30.23) and Ben Bonfield (30.98). The rest of the runners finished in the order Tom Williams, Mark Crookall, Steve Snell, David Cuff, Paul Crute, Peter Steel, Paul Davies, Dylan Ferrett and Jason Robinson.

With the round on Sunday being cancelled and no longer counting for the Championship and with only 6 rounds now to count Steve Holland is the challenge winner-elect having won 6 of the 7 rounds held, one of them being a double points scoring round and so with a maximum total of 70 points he cannot mathematically be caught. When officially confirmed this will be Steve’s second Challenge win having also won in 2023 in his Caterham, the only non racing car winner.

MOTORCYCLES

Solo motorcycles were divided into 5 classes on Saturday with individual entries in the up to 250cc, won by Patrick Evans on his KTM (37.30) and in the 251-350cc, won by Paul Machon on a glorious Aermacchi Ala D’Oro in 38.75. 

Paul Machon (Aermacchi) [photo by Matthew Willis]

The biggest entry was in the 351-500cc class. Cameron Williams on his Aprilia led for a while in the first run until Callum Short, running second last, came through on his KTM to take the lead which he improved upon on the second run to win with 34.83.

The small field of 501 – 750cc bikes (3 KTMs and 1 Suzuki) contained the fastest bike overall on the first run when Callum Short recorded 34.26 which was not bettered in the class on the second run. Marcus Bisson was second on 34.45.

In the 751-1400cc class Paul Jeffrey took the lead on the first run, slightly slower than Short, on 34.42 but on the second run he reduced that to 34.11 to end the day fastest overall with David Peat second in class on 34.84.

Two contrasting Sidecar outfits completed the field – the familiar Windle – Kawasaki of Kevin and Sara Dewell were by far the quicker on 42.04, but their only rival was a 1950s 750cc Triumph Twin outfit ridden by Peter and Claire Thomas. This was Peter’s first time riding the bike and they recorded 2 identical times of 52.01.

Peter and Claire Thomas (Triumph 750 twin) [photo by Matthew Willis]

Onto the Sunday, and beginning with the Sidecars this time, and amazingly the Thomas outfit once again recorded two identical times – but a good bit quicker at 48.35, still a bit behind the Jewells on 40.01.

There were only 4 solo classes on the Sunday as Paul Machon had moved from his 350 Aermacchi to an equally classis 500cc Seeley G50.

Patrick Evans reduced his time in the 250cc class to 37.14 while Cameron Williams turned the tables on Callum Short to win the 500cc class with a 34.43 to Short’s 34.61.

The 750cc class was bolstered by the addition of Tom Short, Tommy Hodges and George Hodges, all on KTMs and it was these 3 who finished in the top 3 positions with Short on 32.87, Tommy Hodges on 33.03 and George Hodges on 33.25. Callum Short, the winner on Saturday was 4^th taking nearly a second off his Saturday time with 33.35.

Tom Short (KTM SMR) [photo by Matthew Willis]

In the 1400cc class Paul Jeffery repeated his winning Saturday time of 34.11 on his first run on Sunday but then improved to 33.82 on the second run with David Peat second again on 34.43.

A Top Ten run-off for the bikes was programmed on Sunday but it too was a casualty of the early stoppage of the meeting.

Fairwell Andrew Hext

Aug 5, 2026

It is often said that Gurston is more like a family than a motor club. If that is indeed the case, then Andrew has, for some time, been regarded as head of that family. Sadly, Andrew died in Kimberley East Care Home in Salisbury on Monday August 3rd, he had been there since the start of the year.

Like many, Andrew started his involvement in motorsport as a marshal where his talents were obviously spotted and transported him to other roles. At one stage a clerk, often a committee member with numerous club chairs and most recently as treasurer and event secretary.

Andrew’s keen eye for detail, his knowledge of rules/protocol and his insistence on correct procedure fully qualified him as the custodian of the ‘Gurston Culture’.
He was instrumental in setting up the first Hillclimb drive schools and subsequently the overseeing Drive School Association. He also was responsible for BARC S/W being one of the first motor clubs to have its own website. His skillset and experience identified him as the ideal candidate to become I.T. Manager for BARC at Thruxton, a position he held for many years and as a result earned the respect and friendship of many who worked with him at HQ.

There is much at Gurston that we must thank Andrew for and we will miss his stories ( even if we had heard them before) and the reassuring presence of a very safe pair of ever willing hands.

2027 calendar confirmed

Jul 22, 2026

We haven’t even reached August and already we have our championship dates for 2027 -and they are on the calendar, get them on your calendar now!

You can add our calendar to your calendar with the ical feed using the “subscribe to calendar” feature on the events page

Other dates such as school days will be added in due course; all the more reason to subscribe to our iCal feed.

Awards Night Bookings Open!

Jul 9, 2026

Gurston Championship Rounds 9-12 July 2026 Review

Jul 8, 2026

Gurston Down Championship Rounds 9-12 – 4^th and 5^th July

WORDS – John Brown

PICTURES – Vince Feeney

Gurston was blessed with summer sunshine and a capacity entry for the Tony Marsh Memorial Weekend at the beginning of July. As well as Rounds 9 – 12 of the Turbo Dynamics Gurston Down Championship and rounds 5 and 6 of the Online Cleaning Technologies Top Ten Challenge there was a wide variety of entries from 8 guest clubs and championships. These included a welcome return from the Paul Matty Lotus Challenge  who were last at the hill, we think sometime around 2010-2011.

Gurston Down classes

As the Championship reached its halfway stage the top two scorers crept a little further away from the field though they could hardly have been closer to each other as after the 11^th round they were tied on points to the nearest 1/100^th at the top of the table.

We had 3 entrants in 4-STD, Standard cars which was won on Saturday by Rob Thomson in his Mazda MX5 with a time of 40.80 which is just 0.11 away from the class record. On Sunday he transferred to the Bristol MC Visconte MX5 class and won that in 40.65, proving that the Standard class record could be his if he comes back again. Lyndon Evans in his Honda Civic was second on Saturday and won the class on Sunday in the absence of Thomson.

As ever the two drivers in Class 4-MX5 entertained us with their various lines through Carousel but this weekend Richard Morton won twice on Saturday and once on Sunday before he ran just a little bit too wide at Carousel to allow Chris Burch to take the honours on that run. His first run on Saturday of 39.08 had been below the class target and overall the two drivers both moved up a couple of places in the Championship to 4^th and 5^th.

Richard Morton (Mazda MX5)

John Davey was beaten for the first time this season on Sunday in Class 4a – Road Going Series Production up to 1400cc and it wasn’t his regular rival David Nutland who did it but Julian Rinaldi in a Ford Fiesta. Julian had been over a second behind John on Saturday but found all of that time on Sunday to win by just 12/100ths in 39.87 although John’s consistent times, close to his class target, moved him up to 3^rd place in the Championship.

John Davey (MG Midget)

The three drivers mentioned above who moved up the overall table all benefited from an uncharacteristic mistake from Russell Davies in  Class 4b for Road Going Series Production 1400 to 2000cc when he ran wide in Carousel as brilliantly caught in Vince Feeney’s photo below. That trip on the grass and the consequent slower progress cost Russell about 6 seconds and this was equally reflected in his Championship score for that run. 

Russell Davies (Honda Civic Type R)

Of course a driver can drop their 6 worst scores at the end of the season and so that will probably be one of Russell’s. In the end he did not win the class either as on both days non-Championship runner Martin Walters, on his first visit this year in his Abarth 500 Essesse, got below 38 seconds (37.89 and 37.92) to take home the wine glasses.

Martin Walters (Abarth 500 Essesse)

There was a good variety of non-Championship  entries on Saturday in Class 4c – Road Going Series Production over 2000cc which was won by Graham Ramsay in his SEAT Cupra (40.96) from Jon Young in his MG ZS and Stephen Lloyd in his Audi A5 Sportline. On Sunday they had all disappeared and the only entrant, Gary Hull in Aaron Perrott’s Aston Martin Vantage, took the solo win on 37.71.

Clive Skipper was again missing from Class 4d – Road-going Specialist Production Cars and with Rob Brodie competing up at the BHC round at Harewood there were no scorers in this class either which was won by Downton Motor Club class record holder Richard Burnett in his Westfield on both days in 34.41 and 33.99. Second was Gary Dawkins in his Lotus Exige who had cured the problem which kept him from competing on the Sunday at our last meeting.

It seemed like a time for the ages when Clive Stangle reset the record for Class 4-4wd Road-going to 32.78 to win the 2025 Championship. On Saturday Dan Young in his Subaru, featured in all its glory in last month’s report, won a 2 car class against Simon Neve in a time of 37.94. Sunday, however, saw the return of Jack Ellis and father Nick in their Subaru. Jack had held the record all through 2025 with a time of 33.23 until Stangle’s assault on it in August and when practice began on Sunday he showed he was out to regain it with times of 32.75 and 32.21. He went even better on his first class run with a 32.12 and followed that up with a 32.40 to win from his father by over 2,3 seconds! In 3^rd was the only Championship scorer in the class, Steve Cox in his VW Golf.

Jack Ellis (Subaru Impreza)

Graham Beale missed out last month because he was helping run the meeting and so he was determined to make a mark this time around in Class 6 – Modified Limited Production Marque Sports Cars over 2000 c.c. His Championship target was 33.64 and he not only beat that but on his first run on Saturday he also beat Simon Purcell’s 10 year old class record of 33.19 with a 33.06 in his Ginetta G33. This time also qualified Graham for the Top Ten Challenge run-off on Saturday but he decided not to risk the car for the outside chance of scoring a point.

Graham Beale (Ginetta G33)

Neil Turner was back in his Mini in Class 7 – Modified Series Production cars up to 1400cc and with times of 36.84 (Sat.) and 36.04 (Sun.) he easily held off David Bean in his Mini although David set a season’s best on Saturday.

On to Class 8 – Modified Series Production Cars 1400 – 2000 c.c. and the continuation of Karl Stevens effort to win the Championship. Having already reduced his target on 5 occasions this season it took until the end of Sunday to make his 6^th reduction, this time by another 6/100ths to 35.68. For the first time this year he had some serious opposition for the class win from Mike Harriman in his Renault Clio who lost out by just 0.48 (Sat.) and 0.37 (Sun.).

In Class 9-4WD Jim Herbert had been puzzled by a lack of pace back in June and also had a lack of confidence in what the car was doing under him but a watching Clive Stangle identified a problem and for this meeting Jim and the car were back on form with times in the 33 second bracket. A first Saturday run of 33.16 was an improvement on his target by over half a second and was only 4/100ths away from Stephen Moore’s class record. His best on Sunday was 33.19 and he left the meeting in a much happier frame of mind. Once again Rupert Ryall was his only rival, but this month a bit further back as Jim improved.

Having first used slicks on his Westfield Superbusa at the Gurston Masters in May, Adrian Lewis was back out in Class 11 – Modified Special Production cars andwas fast enough on Sunday (33.11) to qualify for the Top Ten Challenge run-off. His only rival, Lloyd Bettinson in his Fisher Fury Phoenix had the misfortune to have a front hub break on his first Saturday run leading to the loss of the wheel but he was back out on Sunday to be just behind Lewis with a 33.82.

Lloyd Bettinson (Fisher Fury Phoenix) chased by a wheel

Just a small turnout in Class 13 – Historically Interesting  with regulars Fryth Crosse (Ensign) and Mike Broome (Alexis) joined once again on Saturday by Ian Baxter in his ex-Brian Redman Brabham. It was Baxter who led to begin with on Saturday but an improvement of nearly a second by Fryth saw him take the class win on 35.22. An improvement to 34.62 was then enough on Sunday to beat Mike Broome and overall he now lies 7^th in the Championship, just 0.36 behind Stephen Snell, of whom more shortly. 

We were down to just one runner in Class 14 for Classic Clubmans with Luke Trotman withdrawing and Charles Jones not entered and so Ben Rolls just had the clock to beat and with 4 runs on or under 34 seconds he eventually, on Sunday afternoon, beat his target by 1/10^th sec with a 33.56 to leapfrog Charles Jones in the Championship though both have scored in fewer than the maximum number of rounds.

The other leading runner in the Championship, apart from Karl Stevens is Tim Pitfield in his DJ Firecat in Class 15a – Sports Libre cars up to 1400cc. Like Karl he lowered his class target for the 6^th time this season (to 32.50) and after 11 rounds the 2 of them were tied in the lead of the Championship to the nearest 1/100^th of a point. Karl then beat his target in Round 12 while Tim was just 5/100ths slower. It is looking likely that the double points scoring rounds will be critical in deciding this championship. Tim qualified for both Top Ten Challenge run-offs but chose not to run in the second one as his car was overheating.

Paul Davies and Peter Steel in their Radicals comprised Class 15b for Sports Libre between 1400 and 2000cc. As ever the two were very close but it was Steel who generally held the upper hand winning three out of the 4 runs, but their best times across the weekend were just 5/100ths apart in favour of Steel (31.83). 

The only entrant in Class 16 – Sports Libre over 2000cc over the weekend was Chris Dunscombe in his spectacular Peugeot T16 bodied Mitsubishi Lancer on Sunday who had a best time of 36.90.

Chris Dunscombe (Mitsubishi Lancer / Peugeot T16) – photo by John Brown

Last month in the class for  Racing Cars up to 600cc, it was Calum Kemp who won on Saturday and Euan Kemp who won on Sunday and this month it was exactly same scenario with Calum (season’s best 36.08 on Saturday) being slightly quicker overall than Euan (36.13 on Sunday). Reg Allen continued to chase the brothers on Sunday finishing just 0.78 behind Calum. In the Championship Euan currently leads Calum by just over a point, both having scored in 9 rounds.

David Cuff was again a non-starter in Racing Cars 600-1100cc but he and daughter Lucy are expected to be sharing the car next month. The battle at the front between the top 3 of Mark Crookall, Ben Bonfield and Tom Williams (back in a repaired car) was ever changing and the following is a summary of their times, starting with the best: 30.66 (Mark), 30.79 (Ben), 30.86 (Mark), 30.91 (Tom), 30.97 (Ben), 31.01 (Tom), 31.02 (Tom), 31.12 (Mark – twice), 31.19 (Tom), 31.20 (Ben) and 31.22 (Ben).  What this translated into was a win for Mark on both days with Tom second on Saturday and Ben on Sunday and all 3 qualified well up for the run – offs.

Stephen Snell was joined this month in the Racing Cars 1100 to 1600 cc class by 2010 and 2011 Top Ten Challenge winner, Andrew Forsyth, in his OMS, and it was he who won the class with 30.40 (Sat.) and 30.26 (Sun.). Stephen meanwhile continues to improve and on Saturday he reduced his class target by 1/10^th second to 31.76 but on Sunday morning he went even quicker and brought that down to a new PB of 31.19 (He had previously done a 31.64 in a run-off in June). This meant that he has now jumped up to 6^th in the Championship.

In the 1601 to 2000cc (normally aspirated) Racing Car class our two championship regulars of Nigel Pitt in his Dallara and Steve Holland in his Force were joined for the weekend by Simon Carre from Guernsey who was getting in some seat time in his Dallara before the BHC visits the Channel Islands next week, and on Saturday by Andrew Dinner in his ex-Tom New (among others) Pilbeam MP62/82/88. 

Simon Carre (Dallara F302)

Nigel Pitt was once again going better than ever in the ex-Tim Elmer Dallara getting a PB on Sunday afternoon with 29.56 which he then proceeded to lower to 29.25 in the run-off. One of the story lines of the season so far has been Steve Holland’s pursuit of the class record set by Trevor Willis back in May 2005 of 28.08 when the class was also open to forced induction cars. Trevor had also recorded a 28.07 in the run-off at the September BHC meeting that year, though of course that did not count as a class record.

For many years after that the class was dominated by forced induction cars until in 2016 the two engine types were separated so that normally aspirated cars would be attracted back to the hills. The revolution began slowly and it is only in the last few years that cars to challenge Trevor’s record have come to the fore, principally Johnathen Varley in the GWR Predator who back in May 2025 recorded a class winning time of 28.11 – close but not quite. Steve Holland brought his new Force TA in 2025 and by the end of the season he had a PB of 28.63, although he also missed both the July and the early August weekends. In 2026 he has been getting quicker and quicker and as he left here in June he was down to a PB of 28.24. 

Steve Holland (Force TA)

As well as the usual Championship points scoring priorities this last weekend there was also the matter of the Tony Marsh Memorial Trophy which is awarded to the registered championship contender who breaks by the most or comes closest to their class record on one of the 4 class runs and this prestigious award was something else for Steve to aim at. His times on Saturday were a bit away at 28.82 and 28.65 but on Sunday morning it was a 28.36. Sunday afternoon and it all came together and a super-smooth passage through Carousel helped him to cross the line in 27.99 for a new class record.

Unfortunately the 0.09 improvement was not quite enough to win the Tony Marsh Trophy as Graham Beale’s time in his Ginetta of 33.06 had taken 0.13  off Simon Purcell’s record to win the cup.

The 1601 to 2000cc (forced induction) Racing Car class was once again just Jason Robinson in his Empire Wraith but after a good weekend in June when he got down to a PB of 30.17 the car decided it did not want to play this weekend and after 2 troublesome practice runs and one timed run of 40.30 on Saturday, and two more troubled runs on Sunday morning he packed up.

So after 12 rounds of the Championship the top 6 points scorers are Karl Stevens (239.82), Tim Pitfield (239.71), John Davey (231.60), Richard Morton (230.92), Chris Burch (226.26) and Stephen Snell (225.38).

TOP TEN Run-offs 

The top 4 runners in the run off each day were identical with Steve Holland winning from Nigel Pitt, Mark Crookall and Tom Williams. Stephen Snell picked up 5^th on Saturday when Ben Bonfield’s Jedi jumped out of gear on his run, but Ben was back to 5^th on Sunday with Stephen 6^th. Tim Pitfield had been 6^th on Saturday but did not run on Sunday. 

Peter Steel did not run on Saturday and came 7^th on Sunday ahead of Paul Davies who had picked up the vacant 7^th spot on Saturday. Tony Bonfield was 8^th on Saturday but dropped to 10^th on Sunday while Ben Bonfield’s problem on Saturday meant he finished in 9^th, a spot taken  by Dylan Ferrett on Sunday. Dylan finished in 10^th on Saturday with what is possibly the slowest time ever for a run – off – 169.97. His car cut out on the run after Hollow and while he came to a halt for a bit he received no outside assistance. He eventually got the car started again and cruised slowly up to the top of the hill. With Steel and Graham Beale not starting he picked up the final point.  Adrian Lewis was the final runner on Sunday and finished in 11^th position.

VISITING CLASSES

MGCC Speed Championship

A wide variety of MGs ranging from a pre war PA and TC (both supercharged) through an MGA and various Midgets to modern day MGF and TF variants was won by the only Austin Healey in the class – Simon Jones in his Sprite who was quickest on all runs.

National Historic Speed Championship

The National Historic Speed Club was founded in 2023 by Steve Akers to give owners of historic vehicles an outlet where they would compete against similar age (pre 1977) cars. Steve was competing in his Lotus Elan and came 3^rd on Saturday and 2^nd on Sunday but the winner on both days was recent recruit Andrew Webber in his Lotus 47D62R who has transferred over from the HSA Speed Championship as they are no longer hosting Classic car classes. He was quickest on 3 of the 4 runs and his final time of 38.25 was a new class record. Kevin Strange in his Morgan was quickest on the first run. An interesting variety of 9 cars including a Hillman Imp, a Volvo Amazon and a Triumph Dolomite Sprint. Unfortunately Peter Joy’s Lotus Elite which had been fastest in practice had terminal problems on its first timed run.

Andrew Webber (Lotus 47D62R)

Gilbern Owners Club

The Gilberns ( 2 cars and 3 drivers) only ran on Saturday but this class also produced a class record with Alex Ward in his Invader taking nearly 2 seconds off the record with a 61.55.  Only Ian Linnard in his Invader took a second run.

Alex Ward (Gilbern Invader)

Bristol MC Visconte MX5 Challenge

Four cars and 5 drivers in this class on Sunday only and yet another class record was set by Rob Thomson at 40.65 although he had been behind James Hurford on the first run.

Rob Thomson (Mazda MX5)

Downton Motor Club Speed Championship

The Downton club returned for the third time this season with a good turn out of 10 cars on Saturday and 12 on Sunday. Dominic Bishop’s Radical was fastest on both days though he had lagged behind Mark Everett’s TVR Griffith on Saturday’s first run. A possible engine issue curtailed Mark’s running on Sunday but the one run he took all day was enough to get him into third behind the returning Derek Kessell’s Maguire Mini spaceframe who was not present on Saturday. Zak Cobb was again the quickest of the BMW Mini Coopers and it was good to see Peter Hannam out on Sunday in his Cooper T65, taking 6^th in a tightly packed field where less than 4/10ths second separated 4th from 8^th.

Midland Speed Championship

Three Westfields, an Aston Martin and a Mini Clubman provided variety in this class with the run wins shared between Graham Woodcock’s Westfield (2 on Saturday), Aaron Perrotts’ Aston and Craig Spooner’s Westfield (by 1/100^th) on Sunday with the overall class win on Sunday going to Perrott.

Caterham and Lotus 7 Club Championship

A variety of Caterham 7 variants across 4 classes had their annual outing to Gurston Down with class wins on both days going to Ivan Pullen (Class 1), Robert Jacobs (3/100ths away from his own class record) (Class 2) and Jeremy Davies (Class 4). 

In Class 3 the winner on Saturday was Dom Williams but then on Sunday morning he ran wide at Carousel and impacted the barrier outside the commentary box (see Vince Feeney picture below). Although he carried on to the top of the hill the car came back on the flat bed and was not seen again. In his absence the class win on Sunday went to Alan Bowler, whose co-driver, Regin Jensen, had come over from Demark to compete.

Dom Williams (Caterham 7) on his way to join the commentator

Paul Matty Lotus Challenge

After an absence of at least 15 years a large entry of 26 Lotus runners was entered for the latest round of their challenge. Unfortunately Paul Matty and wife June were unable to be present as Paul had had a heart operation the previous Tuesday but he kept in touch from home to work out the handicap prizes!

A few other non-starters reduced the final runners to 19 each day, with 9 of those being racing cars (8 single-seaters and one sports car). Quickest throughout was Tony Wallen in his Lotus 69 F3 with an 1800 BDG engine who on Saturday reduced the class record from 34.73 to 34.38 before then going even better with a 33.48 on Sunday.  The previous record had been set back in 2005 by Tony Shute driving a Lotus Expose. David Hampton in his Lotus 69 F2 / Atlantic also with a BDG engine was second both days while into 3^rd came Iain Stallard with the quickest of the Lotus Elans.

Tony Wallen (Lotus 69F3)

Notable among the drivers was Richard (Dick) Swindall in his Lotus Elan who is 91 years old and had driven the car down from Glasgow via his daughter’s in Hertfordshire. 

Richard Swindall (Lotus Elan)

For those with an interest in all things Lotus there were 3 Elans, 3 Elises, I Exige and one 23, one 35, one 51c FF (modified), one 61 FF (modified) and four 69s of various specifications.

A welcome addition to the paddock at Gurston and we hope to see them again in the future (and not 15 years in the future!).

I am not sure when we last had a meeting with so many class records being broken, 7 with 2 of them being more than 20 years old. 

Performance and Conditions Adjusted Championship

Jul 6, 2026

Introducing a new “shadow championship” to Gurston Down Speed Hillclimb

All year we have been running a new test competition to trial something new and see if helps with a few challenges we see

• people not incentivised to compete on days of non-perfect conditions (time based points)
• not all cars can be competitive, so creates a barrier to entry for newcomers
• to make more cars competitive we introduce more classes
• too many classes means too few cars per class, an average of less than 5 cars per class

The aim is

“Allow anyone to fairly compete & be competitive in essentially any vehicle and be able to compete on any day with whatever conditions”

and secondarily to “stem the proliferation of classes”

Goal: Ultimately appeal to more people in bigger variety of cars and stem the proliferation of classes and reward performance on bad weather/track days

the championship works through handicapping. Lots of competitive sports use handicapping to level the field of play, some are based on equipment (sailing) some are based on ability (golf). But there are lots of other handicapped competitions

Drag racing, Dial-In in Bracket Racing; declare a time for a run you will not beat
Cycling; usually reduced mileage
and Speedway, Chess, Go, Sailing, Gliding, Tennis, Basketball, all have handicapping systems

Lots of different approaches were considered and simulated. But this year the new PaCAC championship is managing a target time for every competitor and reducing it when you beat it. It also adjusts it for each run by considering the times of all the competitors relative to their target times. Points are determined relative to this adjusted target time. Points are accrued over the whole season.

More information can be found on the competitions page

We hope this will provide a new competition that adds a new element and shows how we may equalise without formal classes and refine the concept in future seasons.